Horse molecules in air contaminated DNA tests, says food company at centre of scandal

The food company at the centre of the scandal over the contamination of
beefburgers sold in British supermarkets, has questioned the validity of the
DNA tests used to identify horse meat in its products.

The controversial Irish tycoon insisted that there was no health problem associated with traces of horse meat found in the burgers.

"People are psychologically concerned about the sort of animal they are eating and rightly so. Kids see them [horses] as pets," he said.

The Irish food processing giant ABP Foods, owns the Silvercrest subsidiary which produced the Tesco value beef burgers found to contain 29 per cent horse meat.

The company, which has an estimated £2.2 billion turnover, is privately owned by Mr Goodman, a self-made millionaire who was once the biggest supplier of beef to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and who triggered a major Irish political scandal in the 1990s.

Dutch suppliers have been identified as the suspected source of horse meat which contaminated beefburgers sold in British supermarkets.

Food standards officials in Ireland have asked their Dutch counterparts to investigate "several companies" in connection with the scandal.

Officials believe the horse meat in beefburgers sold by British supermarkets came from contaminated "filler" imported from Holland.

Food safety experts claimed that suppliers in Europe might have passed off horse filler as beef because it costs four times less.

However, under Dutch regulations, if a company is found to have deliberately passed off horse meat as beef, the maximum fine is just €1,050 (£880).

Industry insiders said horse meat from Holland was likely to have been imported from Argentina or Brazil.